This year’s Santa Barbara County budget hearings were less lively than past years simply because there was little discretionary money for policy makers to fight over. But that doesn’t mean there was no fighting.
The county supervisors faced a $30 million shortfall. Squeezing the budget were employee pension costs, fire protection services, maintenance for roads, and future operational expenses at the Northern Branch Jail.
As property tax revenues increase, the stock market booms, and unemployment falls, County Supervisor Steve Lavagnino acknowledged the county’s financial woes might seem perverse. “Most of this is self-inflicted,” he said. “What we’ve done on this board hasn’t worked.”